Istanbul

A huge section of the city of  Constantinople, Turkey, was set ablaze on this day in 1870. When the smoke finally cleared, 3,000 homes were destroyed and 900 people were dead.  The story -- which may be apocryphal like Mrs. O'Leary's cow in Chicago -- is that a young girl was carrying a hot piece of charcoal in an iron pan when she tripped, sending the charcoal out the kitchen window and onto the roof of an adjacent home. A fire quickly spread along Feridje Street, one of Constantinople’s main streets.  High winds coming down the Bosporus Strait spread the fire quickly.

We spent a couple of days in Constantinople (for some reason when we were there everybody called it Istanbul) and had a very nice time.  The Blue Mosque (see our photo below) is quite a sight, even though the odor of smelly feet is a little off-putting.

We also stopped at a small port city called Marmaris, Turkey, that reminded me of Santa Barbara.  Eating in a sidewalk cafe there, we asked the waiter if he preferred to be paid in Turkish lira or US dollars or Euros.  He said, "Hey, it's all money."